Borax Crystal Snowflake

Grow a snowflake in a jar!

You will need:

• string
• wide mouth jar
• white pipe cleaners
• blue food coloring (optional)
• boiling water (with adult help)
• borax (available at grocery stores in the laundry soap section)
• pencil

Directions:

With a little kitchen science you can creater long lasting snowflakes as sparkly as the real ones.
Cut a white pipe cleaner into 3 equal sections.
Twist the sections together in the center so that you have a "six-sided" star shape.
If your points are not even, trim the pipe cleaner sections to the same length.
Now attach string along the outer edges to form a snowflake pattern.
Attach a piece of string to the top of one of the pipe cleaners and tie the other end to a pencil (this is to hang it from).
Fill a wide mouth jar with boiling water.
Mix borax into the water one tablespoon at a time.
Use 3 tablespoons of borax per cup of water.
Stir until dissoved, (dont't worry if there is powder settling on the bottom of the jar).
If you want, you can add a little blue food coloring now to give the snowflake a bluish hue.
Insert your pipe cleaner snowflake into the jar so that the pencil is resting on the lip of the jar and the snowflake is freely suspended in the borax solution.
Wait overnight and by morning the snowflake will be covered with shiny crystals.
Hang in a window as a sun-catcher or use as a winter time decoration.

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